Game-Show Contestant Takes a Spin at Politics

After all, they're both impressive feats for a 21-year-old college student.

On one hand, Watts now has enough award money stashed away to make it unnecessary for him to take a dreaded job at the mall.

On the other, the UC San Diego junior could do something about his increasing tuition -- perhaps pressure prominent gubernatorial candidates to address the fee hikes that have hit students across the state.

"That would be a best-case scenario," said Watts, who used $1,516.67 of his May game-show winnings to pay the fee to file as a Green Party candidate.

As if the recall election wasn't novel enough, Watts and a handful of other under-30 gubernatorial hopefuls add the novelty of youth.

For Watts, that meant targeting his age group with his one-issue platform of lowering student fees, having a best friend from high school manage his campaign, and persuading everyone he could think of -- from kindergarten classmates to his 102-year-old grandmother -- to register as Green Party members so they could sign his ballot petition.

"I think young candidates can certainly electrify an electorate," said Adam Anthony, project director of Campaign for Young Voters, an organization that encourages candidates to consider young people a valuable voter base.

"What's more important is the authenticity a young person can bring," he said. "A 20-year-old has 20 years of advertising thrown at them. They have very good insincerity detectors."

Watts faced 45 people armed with such detectors recently in a classroom at West Valley College, not far from his south San Jose home. He looked like just another student, his bony body hidden by baggy jeans, a loose T-shirt and Nike sneakers of the non-flashy variety.

After saying what everyone already knew -- "I'm not going to win" -- Watts broke into an unrehearsed spiel.

"Your constituency is not to be taken advantage of." The reason most politicians don't care, he said, "is, statistically, students don't vote. They're raising your fees because you don't vote."

Whether it's because they are jaded or ignored, the 18-to-24 crowd has indeed been quieter than other voter age groups. While they make up 13% of those old enough to vote, they accounted for 8% of the voter turnout in the 2000 federal elections.